Fleck 5600SXT metered softener valve: quick sheet

In service, raw water enters the valve, flows down through the resin bed and returns up the center distributor tube to the outlet, passing the turbine meter. The SXT board reads meter pulses and counts down the gallons remaining. In delayed-meter mode (the usual softener setup) it schedules regeneration for the programmed regen time once the remaining gallons fall into reserve; in immediate mode it starts right away; time-clock modes ignore the meter and use days.

During regeneration the drive motor turns a cam/gear that pushes the piston to each position, and the board times each step. Typical softener sequence: backwash (BW, upflow through the bed to drain to lift and clean it), brine draw/slow rinse (BD, the injector pulls brine from the salt tank and pushes it slowly through the resin), rapid rinse (RR, fast downflow to pack the bed and clear brine), then brine fill (BF, the valve sends a timed amount of water back to the salt tank through the brine line flow control so the next brine is ready). The tank therefore refills at the end of a regeneration, not before.

Programming is layered: user settings (time of day and, on some firmware, day override), master programming (display format, valve type, control type, number of tanks, capacity, hardness, reserve method, day override, regen time, cycle times, meter type) and a diagnostic display (current flow, peak flow, reserve, software version). Settings survive short outages: the board has a capacitor that holds the clock for roughly 48 hours; programming is held in non-volatile memory.

Capacity and salt dose are linked: brine fill time sets how much water goes to the salt tank, and that sets pounds of salt per regeneration. If BF is set much too long the salt tank overfills; too short and the resin is under-regenerated and hardness breaks through before the gallon count runs out.